Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
I caught Lucas’s eyes and sighed. This wasn’t the way I wanted to tell him, but I was done lying and hiding.
I tented my brows in apology. I hoped he could see the regret in my expression.
He deserved better than this. I sent up silent prayers that whatever came next wouldn’t negatively impact his current business or plans for expansion.
I couldn’t bear to cause damage to his dreams or livelihood in any way.
I couldn’t live with that, and I had no idea how to fix things.
“How did you know?” I asked Virginia. Where had I gone wrong?
Her smile softened. “Occam’s razor,” she said, though her tone made the answer sound more like a question.
“The simplest answer is usually the right one. Chez Margot hired a new pastry chef, who has everyone raving about desserts that were on the menu years before she showed up. Then they contracted a new company to provide grab-and-go pastries a few days later. It was suspicious.”
My heart sank. She was right, and I was a failure at subterfuge.
“I asked around a little,” she said, “and I learned you were new to town, following a recent move. I plugged your name into county auditor sites until I found two homes listed with your name. One is a few blocks away; the other is in an elite location a couple of towns over. Jealous of that zip code, by the way.”
She spoke into the phone again, recording herself.
“I talked to folks in the school pickup lines in your old district, and a whole lot of those parents seemed to know exactly who I was talking about when I mentioned the Invisible Baker. But they wouldn’t say a word.
” Her eyes gleamed. “When I asked the same questions to parents in my home district, they looked at me as if I had two heads. The whole thing seemed very community coded. So I took to the internet.” She lowered the phone and offered me a self-deprecating grin.
“I plugged the LLC name into the state’s business website and found all your contact information, but that’s a less interesting story. ”
I laughed. “It is,” I agreed.
A woman in pink approached with a business card from the bakery display case. “Will you sign this for me?”
I made a silly face. “What?”
Virginia raised her phone to film.
The woman passed me the card and a Sharpie. “We’re all here because we appreciate you so much. Even if you can’t completely save us from the judgy moms at our schools, the fact that you’re out there, helping us and other moms get by, is everything.”
I accepted the pen and card, then took longer, slower looks at their faces. I recognized two of the five.
“Your company restores our faith in people,” another woman said. “And it reminds us that we all need to do better for one another.”
My eyes blurred with sudden, unshed tears. I set the card on my box and signed the card as the first drops fell. I returned the card. “Thank you for saying that, but I was just trying to help.” And make a little money doing what I loved.
I spotted Lucas watching from a distance. “I’m sorry I lied to you,” I said.
He moved slowly forward, a heartbroken expression pinned to mine.
Virginia panned her phone from me to him and back, but I only cared about making amends with my new boss and friend.
“I wanted to tell you,” I vowed. “I just—couldn’t.”
“I know,” he said. “I understand.”
Virginia rolled her eyes at her phone. “Sophie’s boss tried to distract me with a story about a retired man baking for stressed-out moms. No one bought that, but good try,” she teased.
Lucas blushed.
“You already knew?” I guessed.
Of course he did. Why else would he make up a story?
He ran a hand through his thick dark hair and averted his gaze.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded. I’d been sick over my lie when he’d known all along.
“You didn’t want me to know,” he said. “And it wasn’t any of my business.
I knew you had your reasons. I stopped placing orders to give this time to simmer down, but”—he motioned to the group of women in pink, then to Virginia—“it didn’t help.
I’m sorry this is happening. You should’ve been able to choose when, or if, you made this public.
I tried telling them that. I’ve spent the last few days trying to reason with the unreasonable. ”
“You were protecting me.”
The sadness in his expression took on new meaning. He wasn’t upset that I’d lied—he was sorry he hadn’t been able to help me keep my secret.
He nodded, and I snapped my mouth shut, suddenly hyperaware of our audience.
I’d assumed he was extra busy lately making plans for France or the evening upgrades to his restaurant, but he’d spent at least a portion of that time communicating with Virginia Bonnie Black for me.
My heart fluttered with fresh appreciation, but whatever was between Lucas and me didn’t need to be aired on social media or broadcast to his restaurant. This conversation had to wait. There was a more immediate issue in need of resolution.
I pulled in a deep, steadying breath, then turned on my heels and cut through the pink T-shirts to the bakery display. I made a show of setting my box aside and raising my The Invisible Baker sign in one hand.
“I was invisible for many years,” I said, speaking directly to the camera, “as I think too many women are. I cooked, cleaned, cared for my daughter, and managed the emotions and mental load of everyone in my family. I did that for decades. And I did it alone.” An exasperated laugh seeped from my core.
It was all so ridiculous. How had society remained this way for so long?
“The sadder thing is that my story is not an anomaly. So many of us suffer silently, giving all we have to those around us, trying desperately to make everyone happy all while diminishing and depleting our own happiness. And there’s always someone out there ready to complain that it’s not enough.
That we haven’t done enough.” Around me, the women in pink nodded and whispered their agreement.
Their solidarity gave me strength. “I was invisible for years, like too many other women, and no one ever, ever said thank you. But I’m done with that now. ”
I held the sign in front of me, and with the Sharpie I’d used to sign the business card, I drew a big X through the letters I-n, changing the words on the sign to spell The Visible Baker.
I spun the revision to face Virginia, and I looked directly into her camera. “I’m visible now, and I see you too.”
A round of applause rose throughout the restaurant, and I realized our audience had grown.
The women in pink shirts, and others from the nearby dining room and kitchen, made their way closer, many wiping tears as they offered me hugs, handshakes, and words of thanks.
The very words we all wanted but rarely received.
“You heard it here, folks.” Virginia’s voice carried to me from somewhere beyond the crowd. “Now that Sophie Bianco’s not invisible anymore, she’s sure to reach a lot more of her intended audience. I’m guessing this baker is one who won’t mind if you want to say you’ve made it yourself.”
“Pardon me,” Lucas said, moving along the fringe of people to Virginia’s side.
She moved the phone to include him in her selfie-style view.
“When I first hired Sophie,” he said, “I asked her what she would’ve done differently if she could go back and make changes in her life.”
For a moment, his expression fell, and I wondered if his words made him think of Margot.
I hated that he’d lost the love of his life when so few people ever found theirs.
I wanted joy for him. This kind and caring human who taught me it was safe to trust people with my secrets.
A boss who showed me I was worth having on a team even when I didn’t carry the entire load.
The restaurant seemed too quiet, everyone listening closely as he spoke.
“The specific change she mentioned to me that day, that I think is especially relevant now, is that she would never have been the Invisible Baker. In another life, where she was seen, she would’ve opened a storefront and sold directly to anyone and everyone in need of a little fresh-baked love.”
I laughed nervously. Lucas made my dream sound better than I did.
Virginia turned the camera on me. “Is that still what you want?” she asked.
I nodded. Unwilling to lie, I whispered, “Yeah.”
“Well, viewers,” Virginia said, “if anyone can make that happen, it’s you.”
Slowly, restaurant staff and guests returned to their stations and tables.
I opened the box and offered each woman in pink a pastry. I passed the last treat to Lucas.
Virginia winked. “Another of Virginia’s Secrets revealed, and this one is truly delicious.”